It is known that a conventional cylinder type locking device is generally installed in the stile of the door to be locked, that the cylinder is constituted by a fixed stator and a rotor that can be rotated by a key about the axis of the cylinder, that the different positions of the rotor in relation to the stator-controlled by the key-correspond to the locked or unlocked conditions of the device, and that the rotor is equipped with a mechanical member actuating the system for the locking or unlocking, properly speaking, of the door.
It is also known that the characteristic "combination" of the key can be mechanical; this is the most common case, in which the "code" is obtained by groupings of varying complexity; however, this code can also be magnetic. Such devices are already known, for example, from the description of French patent No. 2 541 345. In this patent, the rotor of the cylinder is pierced with radial openings through which pieces straddling the rotor-stator interface can tip to cause the device to be locked or unlocked. The tipping of these pieces is caused by the mutual actions of small magnets disposed transversely on the key and on the pieces.
However, the construction and assembly of these systems are often complicated, and thus fragile and expensive.
On the other hand, the risks of magnetic interaction make it necessary to space the magnets apart from one another and thus, for a given key and cylinder size, reduce the number, and thereby the quantity, of combinations possible.
The object of the present invention is to provide a magnetically operated locking device which makes it possible to remedy the aforementioned drawbacks by reducing the influence of mutual magnetic interaction between magnets.
Another object of the present invention is to provide a magnetically operated locking device that enables the accuracy of coding to be enhanced in order to preclude any risk of breaking in.
In addition, the device according to the invention offers numerous advantages. It enables the two sides of the door to be locked and unlocked, that is to say both the inside and the outside. Furthermore, the machining and mounting of these different elements are simple, hence inexpensive, as it allows all the operations to be performed, in particular, parallel to the axis of the cylinder. The number of codes, that is to say of possible combinations of the magnets and their implementation, is very large (several hundred million). Finally, the device is tight.
Further objects and advantages of the present invention will emerge from the following description, which is only given by way of example and which is not intended to limit same.